THE OLD-TIMERS' TALE

Abstract

In American cities nostalgic invocations of the past are frequently used to express dissatisfaction with the present. Ethnographers often report these invocations at face value and tend to pay little attention to the context in which they are constructed and the purposes to which they are put. This article analyzes the meanings of the nostalgic narratives of the remnant working-class White population of what is now a predominantly Black and Puerto Rican area. These tales tell of a community once characterized by communal solidarity and economic self-sufficiency and how it has been destroyed by “outsiders.” This view allows working-class Whites to establish the value of a stigmatized neighborhood and helps them claim that they, not the neighborhood's non-White majority, are the “authentic” voice of the community. In this respect the tales are a form of symbolic capital that can be deployed in local political conflicts.

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